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On Photography
On Photography is a collection of critical essays by Susan Sontag that seeks to unpack the role of photography in contemporary society andd how its increasingly more prominent position in modern culture has affected the way we interact with the world around us and perceive truth and reality. In Plato's Cave Sontag starts off her first essay by contending that humanity is still lingering in Plato's metaphorical cave, with images of the world serving as our primary if not only knowledge of the world. Photographs, Sone tag claims, not only provide us with these visions but make assumptions about what is and is not worth looking at and allow us the ability to collect and appropriate the world around us; essentially, they break the world up into collectible fragments. These fragments in turn provide evidence and "incontrovertible proof that a given thing happened" even if it is a distorted or staged version of the event (p. 5). Even when photographers focus on reflecting the reality of the situation, Sontag says, they still must adhere to aesthetic standards and often will try numerous times to get the best possible shot. The technological development of photography has created a means that allows photographers to "democratize all experiences by translating them into images" while also democratizing the meidum itself, with cameras being no longer used only by experts and artists and increasingly being owned and operated by amateurs who used the camera for functions such as capturing family events (p. 7-8). The camera, Sontag states, allows individuals to capture moments and take them with them, creating a permanent representation of a fleeting experience; as a result, tourists and others who wish to experience the world use photography as one of the principal means of doing so. In effect, anyone with a camera dictates what will be immortalized and made permanent. The camera, Sontag claims, is contradictory in nature. It requires that the user does not interfere with that which they are photographing yet the act of choosing what is immortalized suggests participation; moreover, most cameras are sold as tools of agency. It participates in chronicling the ongoing procession of time by making portions of it permanent, yet without context or the assigning of meaning, photographs cannot necessarily inform or change opinions. Photographs construct and provide evidence of meaning yet are not relevant without approrpriate connotations or ideological consciousness. Moreover, while photographs can inspire compassion and sympathy, repeated images can oversaturate the audience and effectively desensitize them. Moreover, as photography becomes more commonplace and industrialized, photographs become not only reductive representations of reality but also part of the landscape, with people assigning to certain photographs greater importance and visuals overtaking other forms of communication as the preferred means of conveying meaning. While people often feel as though they understand the world after viewing it as the camera sees it, Sontag argues that this is the opposite of true understanding because it lacks the skepticism of perception necessary for actual understanding. As such, photography can encourage emotional reactions but cannot transmit genuine knowledge and is valued primarily through sentimentalism; moreover, Sontag argues that photographs by their nature create an "aesthetic consumerism to which everyone is now addicted" and a world in which all of reality ultimately "ends in a photograph" (p. 24). America, Seen Through Photographs, Darkly Sontag contends that even though early photography was not concerned with creating idealized images, however, over time the focus changed to exactly that. Photography, Sontag claims, not only confers importance but also confers beauty and value to the subjects of such photographs. Yet, anyone who is photographed ultimately becomes simply a photograph, and therefore "morally equivalent" to any other photograph (p. 31). Photographs remove the distance from between the observer and the subject of the photograph and can also create strangeness and abnormalcy in otherwise normal subjects. Sontag discusses a visual rhetoric in this essay, suggesting that looking straight into the camera signifies "solemnity, frankness, the disclosure of the subject's essence" that is designed to create an image of the individual as they are in that moment of time while also establishing a relationship of comfort and confidence between the photographer and the subject (p. 38). Yet this rhetoric is not limited merely to poses. Sontag contends that photographic images are often used to test the limits of what is morally acceptable, yet while they may often serve to expose people to circumstances to which they are not accustomed they may also serve to anesthetize people to the world around them. The camera gives the photographer license to look at new subjects without responsibility to them, essentially placing them outside of the situation and leading to a fight against "boredom" (p. 42). As a result, the search for new and interesting images essentially creates a situation in which that which was once seen as outside the norm or "freakish" becomes normalized and commodified, further fueling the search for the new and different (p. 45). Melancholy Objects Sontag discusses in this essay the nature of photography and how it compares to other forms of art. Photography, compared to painting, is much more realistic and reproduces reality more completely. The Surrealist movement attempted to distance art from reality, Sontag argues that photography does much the same thing because it effectively creates a "duplicate world" that is more dramatic than the "real world" (p. 52). Photographs, unlike paintings, are not based on authorial intent but rather are the product of a complex relationship between the subject, the photographer, and an automated tool in the camera that "insures veracity and banishes error" (p. 53). Sontag contends that what makes photographs surreal is not the subject or the intent of the photographer but rather the "distance imposed, and bridged by the photograph: the social distance and the distance in time"; in Sontag's view an ironic attitude from the photographer to the subject is effectively the same as a "respectful fascination" (p. 58). Photographers often cast themselves into one of two camps, either the "moralist" or the "scientist" concerned respectively with observation of social issues and the latter concerned with empirical evidence of "hard cases" (p. 59). However, as Sontag argues, the distance from which the photographer observes their subject effectively serves to create an ideological view that can effectively facilitate whatever sort of image the photographer wishes to convey - whether it was the FSA project that effectively served to legitimize and dignify poverty in rural America to middle class Americans, or the propensity of tourists to invade Native American lands to create "good shots" of Native American life that could then be taken home and in doing so altered and staged the nature of what they were photographing (p. 64). The photographer, in Sontag's view, both "loots and preserves, denounces and consecrates" and serves to effectively allow people to take possessions of the places they visit (p. 64-65). Sontag suggests that American photographers have a high opinion of their country and view it as a challenging and difficult place to classify yet the country also often tosses aside its old history in search of the new and modernized. Photographs manage both to be something to acquired and a means of retaining that past, acting as "found objects"; Sontag argues that photography by its nature is something undertaken by "affluent wasteful, restless societies" and are fascinated with the way in which people age and change, offering an "inventory of mortality" while also encouraging sentimental looks into the past for a better, preferable time (p. 69-71). Photographs, by their nature, offer an instantaneous history and participation while also providing a sense of ironic detachment; photographers are tasked with "recording a disappearing world" without political involvement or the taking of sides (p. 76-77). Photographers argue that all subjects are valuable and valid, yet through the affirmation of their photographs they argue one side or another has greater value or importance. Sontag argues that photography, due to its focus on assigning equal validity to different subjects, upholds Surrealist perspectives and seeks to create art out of that which is considered in real life not to be beautiful. For example, many photography projects focus on decaying factories and manufacturing in Detroit, attempting to create aesthetically pleasing visions of urban blight. Photographs, as "ubiquitous, cheap, unpossessing objects" are not only in line with Surrealism but also differ from paintings in numerous other ways (p. 79). Photographs can be found, can be taken on a whim and by anyone, and tend to age and reproduce well; paintings are the opposite. Photographs suggest that "everything is perishable" and places the real world into photographs while ignoring the fact that reality is more fluid and less focused on "significant events" (p. 81). In Sontag's estimation, photographs are appealing because they not only allow us to see how an expert sees the world but also to accept it for what it is; she contends that photographers ultimately wish to collect instead of understand. The Heroism of Vision Sontag turns her attentionin this essay to the goals of photographers and how they find beauty and meaning through their work. She argues that the search for beauty is an important motivation for the taking of photographs and indeed the photographs may be seen as more representative of beauty; we may judge our own attractiveness based on how we look in photographs and worry about whether the camera will take a bad photograph. Photographs are often retouched and staged in order to create the most aesthetically pleasing version of the image, yet Sontag argues that the stakes are higher in creating fake photographs than they are in fake art, as a fake photograph effectively "falsifies reality" (p. 86). Photographers must effectively balance aesthetic needs of beauty and attractive pictures with the responsibility to accurately portray reality. For this reason photographs have "become the norm for the way things appear to us, thereby changing the very idea of reality and of realism" (p. 87). The photographer was originally perceived to be an objective observer that simply recorded what was happening, yet gradually the focus changed toward replicating the way in which an individual viewed the world. This in turn created what Sontag calls the "heroism of vision", where each individual could effectively show their own sensibilities and perception of the world and in doing so go on a quest to see things "in a fresh way" (p. 89-90). Yet at the same time, the subject of a photograph is often more important than the stylistic manner in which the photograph is taken because the photograph is effectively a means through which knowledge is gathered and shared. Photography, due to its focus on realism, served to free traditional painting from its need to accurately reflect reality and gave it license to move toward more abstract representations of meaning. However, it is for that reason that photography cannot duplicate the creative potential of other forms of art - Sontag claims that photographs cannot transcend their subject in the same way that a painting can. Sontag contends that photographic seeing, because it has the photographer effectively seeing reality as a collection of potential photographs, serves to separate one from nature rather than convene them with it; photographers effectively seek to both turn "living beings into things" and "things into living beings" (p. 98). Photographic seeing also seeks out the "insignificant detail" and "incongruity" in the world but must constantly seek out new and original subjects, further limiting true vision (p. 99). In contrast to many earlier perspectives on photography, Sontag contends that the nature of the medium leads to a "democratization of formal standards" in which there is no fundamental difference or conflict between the mechanical nature of photography and finding formal beauty, nor is there a subject in which beauty and aesthetic pleasure cannot be found (p. 103). The camera can be both friendly and cruel, yet Sontag contends that even in cruelty the camera can still find beauty; photography serves again to expand our notion of what is aesthetic and effectively creates a postmodern set of values and standards. Sontag again points out the importance of context, arguing that the meaning and emotional heft of a photograph can be changed depending on where they are used and inserted; effectively, how photographs are used can be what grants them meaning. However, the "presence and proliferation of all photographs contributes to the erosion of the very notion of meaning" and relative truths (p. 106). Sontag contends that the photographs which are most memorable are those that can be divorced from a particular context and political meaning and can in doing so become "timeless"; Sontag points out, however, that while captions can serve to replace what our eyes perceive from a photograph, captions alone cannot change the meaning of a picture nor necessarily protect it from alternate interpretations (p. 107-109). Photographs, Sontag states, can both engender sympathetic feelings as well as a feeling of distance. Sontag concludes by claiming that photography has essentially turned the world into a "department store" in which all subjects are turned into aesthetic items that "make the entire world available as an object of appraisal" and create a world in which everything is seek as accessible and explicable through the lense of the camera (p. 110-111). The photograph allows the observer to scrutinize fleeting moments in time which would in normal circumstances simply be replaced by another moment in time, yet it does not necessarily offer objective truth. Photographic Evangels In this essay, Sontag concerns herself with the end goals of photographers and how they explain and justify what they do. She notes that many photographers have spent a great deal of time defending their craft despite the fact that photographs are generally taken as an acceptable representation of reality. Sontag suggests that the ease of taking photographs and innate authority do not necessarily relate to a process of knowing; essentially, it is a means of "outwitting the world, instead of making a frontal attack on it" (p. 116). Good photographers, Sontag claims, state that one must see the photograph in their mind before taking it on order to take a good picture, yet they are also firm believers in the benefits of timing and circumstance; moreover, contemporary photographers do not visualize a picture but rather, in Sontag's view, simply focus on how taking pictures makes reality look different. There is a distinction between photography as "true expression" and "faithful recording", yet both perspectives contend that photography allows us to see reality in a way that we had not seen it before (p. 118-119). Photographers often see reality as something that is hidden; their goal is to engage with reality and find a way to peek past its veneer. It is effectively an antagonistic relationship between nature and photographer. However, Sontag contends that to simply classify photographic work as either "predatory" or "benevolent" is a simplification, as photography effectively serves to illustrate a connection between one's self a the world around them (p. 123). As cameras become more powerful and automated, some photographers push back and use simpler technology in the hope to find "the creative accident" and more original and unique means of taking pictures; in doing so they effectively try to "remystify what they do" (p. 124-126). Only after photography became accepted as a genuine artform did photographers become concerned about how they knew what they knew. However, as photography became considered as art, photographers also grew to believe that they were doing something that was at least on par with art and often objected to the use of photographs for commercial ends. Photography, Sontag argues, is a particularly attractive form of art for the contemporary area because it critiqued the traditional notions of art and what was considered to be valid and what was considered not to be valid; at the same time it also developed its own sets of doubts and anxieties about whether a push toward populism would denigrate the validity of photography as a legitimate form of art (p. 131). Sontag claims that the inclusion of photographs in several musueum exhibits create a system in which the possibilities of photographs are studied, yet at the same time calls attention to the fact that individualization of photographs can often be difficult due to their nature as a medium that is relatively democratized and similar. However, it also led to the creation of a new standard by which photographs could be judged - rather than the limiting Westonian perspective of evaluating photographs based on their lighting, composition, and other characteristics, a new perspective took a more democratized view in which the photographer became important and any subject could have value. This in turn, Sontag argues, leads to a situation in which the photographer must be considered an "auteur" and all photographs by that individual constitute a body of work with similar characteristics (p. 137). Photographs that offer something new and innovative are prized, as well. Sontag claims that while time tends to work against the beauty and aesthetic value of paintings, yet the ravages of time add character and value to a photograph and can often enhance its meaning and emotional impact. Photographs are more reproducible, as well, and their ability to more accurately and completely reflect reality to the point where the photographed reality is preferable. Essentially, Sontag claims, photographs have supplanted art and even served in some cases to replicate it. Paintings have even come to reflect the characteristics of photography, with an eye toward reproducible images that can be turned into prints and lithographs; Sontag claims that art is now created solely to be photographed. Yet photography, in Sontag's view, is not art at all. She views it as a "medium in which works of art ... are made" and a process that can "turn all its subjects into works of art", yet the act of photography itself is not an art (p. 149). She further develops this concept by stating that traditional fine arts are more elitist in nature while photography and other media are mroe democratized and do away with the notion of a central author or artist that influences and shapes the work. In fine art, meaning comes through the art and the subjects themselves, in mass media like photography, "the message is the medium itself" (p. 149). By creating a situation in which anyone can make art and that art can be infinitely reproduced and provide a realistic depiction of the world around us, Sontag claims that photography has effectively changed the nature of art. The Image-World Sontag starts the final essay by contending that modern society prefers replications and images of ideas to the original ideas themselves, which both fosters the development of photography and its acceptance as a valid form of art - moreover, it has created a situation in which photographic images have the most power and authority in society. Photographs effectively offer a replication of reality while also serve to extend the reality of their subject; they also tell us something about how we and the photographer relate to the world and give us the ability to possess fragments of reality, supplanting genuine experience and knowledge. These photographs then become part of the broader "system of information" and called upon when necessary in a schematic process; Sontag argues that this in turn redefines reality as "an item for exhibition, as a record for scrutiny, as a target for surveillance" (p. 156). Photography has effectively decreased the distance between the observer and the observed, allowing us to look both at those things which are incredibly small and which are incredibly far away; other forms of photographic technology have allowed for instantaneous development or photography in the absence of light and favorable conditions (Sontag's essays are well before the advent of digital cameras, let alone the ubiquity of phone cameras that allow anyone with a phone to chronicle the world around them). This causes us to grant to objects the characteristics of images and view images as "real things" (p. 158). Photographs essentially make that which is difficult to understand easier to understand and give us the ability to "imprison" and capture reality in a manner that suits our needs and interests (p. 163). However, Sontag argues that photographs do not make reality accessible, but rather make images available - one can learn about what their family members looked like but they may not necessarily find out anything about their personalities or character. Instead, Sontag claims that the photograph merely proves that the individual existed; it is up to the individual to attach connotative and emotional meaning to the image. However, photographs, unlike paintings, are "pieces of evidence in an ongoing biography or history" and imply that there are others to be seen as well (p. 166). Sontag calls the images shown by photographs the "image-world", which is different from the real world in that the real world is mysterious and uncertain. In the "image-world", what will happen has happened and will continue unchanged; moreover, an individual may be more profoundly affected by what they see in photographic images than what they experience in real life because they lack agency in what the images show, when, and for how long. Sontag discusses how witnessing a surgery in real life was less disturbing than seeing it in a film because in real life she could choose what she saw and how she saw it; a film offers no such freedom and may ultimately be more shocking and unsettling. In contemporary society, photography "recycles" reality, which is to say "things and events are put to new uses, and assigned new meanings" beyond arbitrary and binary distinctions. Photography, in Sontag's view, is a means through which anyone can say anything about anything, whether appropriate and concurrent or not. Photography, to Sontag's mind, is a process of "note-taking" on the world around us, with two main ideas in tow: the first is that a keen, informed eye can find beauty and value in any subject; the second is that there is nothing that should not be captured or recorded. Moreover, cameras and photography can be used for a number of different purposes, from "self-surveillance" to therapy to security (p. 177). Sontag argues that a capitalist society requires images in order to encourage people to buy and consume and further legitimize its order and its power; the camera serves these needs because it serves to "subjectivize reality and to objectify it", providing both "spectacle" and "surveillance" (p. 178). These images create an ideological perspective and worldview in which consumption and freedom are seen as one and the same. The continuing cycle of image consumption mandates that new images be created to supplant them, and as we are given greater power to "fix the moment" we become more aware of the fleeting nature of time (p. 179). Sontag harkens back to the allegory of Plato's cave discussed at the beginning, suggesting that images have power beyond being merely shadows of things tha thave actually happened and may in fact turn real experience itself into a shadow on the cave wall. Category:Books